SWIMMING WITH PENGUINS: GERMAN RESORT OFFERS UNIQUE ATTRACTION

Spreewelten bath in Lübbenau (Germany) offers its guests an opportunity to swim together with penguins. No wonder this attraction has become very popular.

The water park Spreewelten in German Lübbenau started to offer its visitors a unique opportunity – to swim together with penguins. The animals feel quite well in the resort. The 12 birds most of them coming from Cottbus ZOO live in the most modern pools for penguins in Europe. The ground with nests and winter quarters were inspired by the rocky landscape of their South American homeland.

A twelve-meter-long glass wall separates the penguins from the outdoor swimming pool complex, so the swimmers can meet the penguins face to face and swim alongside with them. They can also observe them from the observation deck.

"The idea to integrate the mini-zoo in the pool area in Spreewald, was actually born out of necessity," said Axel Kopsch, chief clerk of the Spreewelten, quoted by Tagesspiegel.de. The Kristallwelten GmbH Sauna & Bath in Lübbenau was not successful enough and the management needed to boost its popularity.

The city had to face the dilemma that there are plenty of new baths near Spreewald, so there is more competition than before. "What should we do? We could build bigger and faster slides, but that wouldn’t be enough,” said Kopsch.

They had to think of a completely different solution: the penguins. "They stand in the popularity charts of the animals in second place after the elephant," says Kopsch. Although when first presented the project seemed a bit unreal to the city’s authorities, today the resort is proud of its success. There are weekends when more than 1000 visitors come to visit the complex.